| This dissertation traces the twentieth century social and environmental history of market-gardening sector around Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second largest city. Originally introduced as a form of forced labor during the early decades of French colonial rule, intensive vegetable cultivation, or maraichage, has since become one of the most important sectors in the regional economy, contributing both to employment and the urban food supply.;The narrative focuses on the changing economic and social meanings of work--the many tasks and processes required to get produce from farm to market to cooking pot--in order to examine the on-the-ground effects of a set of interrelated historical forces, namely: urbanization, climate change, international development aid (especially for hydrological projects) and, most recently, state austerity and liberalization under a World Bank/IMF structural adjustment plan.;During the colonial years, the traumatic experience of compulsory labor, the expansion of the market economy, and the teachings of Catholicism and Islam all influenced local perceptions of gardening work, as well as definitions of gender and age-based divisions of labor in both production and marketing. After Independence, a brief period of relative prosperity and dynamism in the commercial gardening sector gave way to increasingly unfavorable environmental and economic conditions. Declining rainfall and urbanization led to the deterioration of the local river water supply, while a stagnant regional economy and government austerity programs depressed demand for garden produce. The resulting hardship and uncertainty has aggravated tensions within the households and peri-urban village communities involved in market-gardening. It has also affected relations between and among producers, wholesalers and retailers. In general, wholesalers' capital reserves, social networks, and collaborative strategies have enabled them to weather economic crisis more successfully than most gardeners or retailers.;In the wake of recent trade liberalization, increasing numbers of small-scale exporters are arranging production contracts with gardeners. In turn, gardeners are adopting more "entrepreneurial" strategies in order to secure access to external markets and aid. These livelihood strategies both reflect and inform the changing meanings of market-gardening work. |
